


Kamen Rider Utsura: Final Stage

by starofjustice



Series: Kamen Rider Utsura [6]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29344674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starofjustice/pseuds/starofjustice
Summary: The CR Riders have been rescued and joined forces with the young heroes who fought in their absence. Their enemies are more powerful than ever, but help might come in unexpected forms (Final arc of Kamen Rider Utsura)
Series: Kamen Rider Utsura [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1284614
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Hey again! Finally back! If you haven’t already, check the “Sidequests” story for quick stories about some new Riders and what they’ve been up to since the last main chapter of Kamen Rider Utsura.**

**Once again, this is chapter 41 of Kamen Rider Utsura, posted separately for…silly reasons, but I want it to show them anyway. ^^ Please enjoy!**

XXX

The door leading back to the stairs clicked shut, and Dr. Kiriya Kujo leaned casually against it. As always he looked completely calm, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was blocking the only way off the roof on purpose.

“Kujo-san…I’ve never done this before. I’m not sure I can do what you’re asking by myself,” Kiiko said quietly. “Are you sure I can’t have Kensei or Onee’s help with this?”

He shook his head, just like she’d been expecting. “Sorry, Mishiranu-san. If they knew, they’d try to get involved in my plan, and it’ll only work if it’s a secret. I’m taking a big risk asking for your help, but you’re the only one who can do this.”

“Okay. I’ll try,” Kiiko answered him. She held out her arm and pointed her index finger into the distance, then concentrated her power into the outstretched finger. She’d never tried to do this on purpose before, she’d only reacted when the power had sparked on its own. But Kiriya was depending on her…

She closed her eyes and tried to focus all her thoughts on the end of her finger. It buzzed ever so faintly with the sensation of her own powers, but nothing else. Kiiko tried spinning slowly in a circle, hoping she could feel what Kiriya needed her to find. Still nothing.

Instead of focusing on her finger, Kiiko tried to imagine her power to detect stretching outward in a circle. First to the buildings across the street. Then the next rooftop beyond that. Her eyes moved back and forth under her clenched eyelids at the incredible strain, as if she was facing a nightmare, but she was wide awake. A flashing light burst into being on the tip of her fingernail.

“Keep pushing it, Mishiranu-san,” Kiriya urged her. “Keep going. You’re doing excellent.”

“Don’t distract me!” Kiiko interrupted his interruption.

He chortled. “Sorry.”

Again she forced her power out farther, not even sure how far anymore since Kiriya interrupted her. Another block, another three, maybe. She could feel so much life. So many people, and Kiiko was scared to realize how many she could feel had developing cases of Corrupture viruses…a large number, but one she couldn’t begin to count.

Then it was too much. A flash of light erupted from above and Kiiko’s senses just shut down from all the strain. When she opened her eyes again Kiriya was kneeling over her, waving a wave back and forth in front of her face. “How long was I out for?” Kiiko croaked.

“Only about two minutes,” Kiriya replied with a smile. “You’re amazing, Kiiko-chan.” She smiled, but his expression turned serious. “Did you see it, though?”

An exhausted smile managed to form on Kiiko’s lips, and she nodded. “I saw it. I saw where Maximum Mighty X is.”

XXX

To Kiiko’s exhausted mind, it was as if they’d gotten to the floor and then immediately arrived at the back lawn of the Daitenkuu Temple. It was a magnificent old building, but neither of them paid much attention to it. Kiriya was paying attention to tearing up the grass with the little camping shovel he’d brought, and Kiiko was paying attention to the growing hole.

“Are you sure they won’t mind we’re doing this?” she asked, slumping back against the tree trunk Kiriya had sat her against.

He crawled to the top, his boyish face and Hawaiian shirt smeared with dirt. “If the staff shows up, we’ll tell them truth: we’re here to save the world,” he said with a smirk. Then he disappeared back down again.

Kiiko coughed and looked away on purpose. Her throat was still dry, since Kiriya had insisted they come over and get the game right away. He was in some kind of hurry he refused to explain to Kiiko, who had nothing left to do but sit around and think. Maybe about the implications of being able to find the missing Rider Gashats like she just had. If the Corrupture found out she could do that, and make their enemies the Kamen Riders even more powerful, would they target her?

Would they target her closest friend?

Would the Corrupture blackmail the Kamen Riders into walking into another trap like they had before? How long would this fighting go on? How bad were things going to get before this was over?

And how _would_ all this end?

“I GOT IT!”

She fell over in surprise at the sudden sound. Kiriya stuck his head up out of the hole in the yard, his shining white smile standing out against the dirt smeared all over his face. He held up his other hand, and in it was what she saw right before she blacked out. A silver and gold-cased Rider Gashat, the label on its side saying “Maximum Mighty X” and showing Mighty piloting a mech with giant pink fists, green feet, yellow exhaust pipes on the shoulders and giant eyes in the torso. On the underside of the cartridge was the unmistakable face of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.

“I actually did it…” Kiiko said breathlessly. “What now?”

“Now, I take you back to the hospital so you can rest. Then I have to make an important call,” Kiriya answered her.

XXX

By the time Kiriya dropped her off at Seito University Hospital, Kiiko had gotten enough of her strength back to walk in under her own power. As soon as she stepped off him, the yellow motorcycle zoomed away by itself.

She was heading down to the CR Ward but stopped as she saw something through the windows of the physical therapy room. Inside there was a small track surrounding a row of exercise equipment. Kiiko was surprised to see Kensei jogging around the track in a t-shirt and sweatpants, while a woman in a blue tanktop and shorts passed him twice while he was still working on one lap. She looked familiar, but Kiiko couldn’t quite remember where she’d seen that lady’s face before.

“You’ve got to pick up the pace!” the woman called as she passed Kensei a third time. “I thought heroes were supposed to be tough!”

“Hayami-san…,” Kensei panted, “heroes have certain occupational hazards!” He turned and smiled as well as he could as he saw Kiiko coming in, but the other runner came past and slapped him on the shoulder as she went by.

“Focus on your practice, Hidenaga!” she barked. Kensei looked Kiiko’s way another second but then turned and tried to run faster down the track. He managed to catch up to the runner for a few seconds before he staggered. Kiiko stared, not sure what to think. She almost screamed when a hand squeezed her shoulder.

But the face Kiiko looked into as she whipped around was calm and reassuring, like always. She was a nurse, after all. “Where’ve you been, Kiiko-chan?” Asuna asked. “You left all of a sudden, and nobody knew where you were. Kensei-kun got awfully worried.”

Kiiko shrugged. “He looks like he’s busy all by himself getting back in shape,” she whispered. “That poison he had in his body for a long time left him really weak after all,” Kiiko said, fixing her eyes on Kensei as he managed to pick up the pace and gain on his trainer again. “It’s kind of hard to believe that’s Kamen Rider Utsura, seeing him like this. I just…I don’t know what to expect anymore.”

Asuna walked up so she was a little bit in front of Kiiko and could look her in the face while keeping an eye on the track. “What do you mean, Kiiko-chan?” she asked.

Sighing, Kiiko answered her sister, “I always thought Kensei-kun was unbeatable because he was the hero of the game. But the longer we do this,” she paused, like she was afraid to say the next part of the sentence. Asuna looked at her expectantly, and Kiiko shook her head and went on. “...the longer we do this, the more I worry about that. A lot of people didn’t respect him, he’s gotten hurt really bad and almost died, and we’ve seen some enemies I’m worried he can’t beat by himself. Nothing makes sense anymore.”

“Kiiko-chan,” Asuna said, chuckling softly, which started to annoy Kiiko, but her older sister hugged her with an arm across the back of her shoulders. “It’s not something you have to deal with all by yourself! The Ministry of Health hired a famous athlete like Sena Hayami to be Kensei-kun’s trainer because they know how much we depend on him. Just like we depend on all the Riders. We depend on you, too, Kiiko-chan.”

For a while Kiiko couldn’t think of how to answer. If the Riders depended on each other so much, she had to ask herself where Rune and Sling were while the rest of them were fighting worse and worse enemies. But Kensei had been saying, for a very long time, they should trust the others.

She caught Kensei’s eye as he came around the track again, he gave her the same innocent smile he gave her the first time he’d told her to trust the others.

And Kiiko saw the warm glint in Kensei’s eyes and found herself thinking he was probably right.

“Thanks, Onee.”

XXX

The Corrupture Cells writhed in agony in the tubes Ayatsu Shuugouteki could see on the back of the transmission. A sweat-faced technician pried his eyes away from the sight and into the camera. “Yes, sir, the matrix will be ready for a prototype test run within the next hour,” he reported to his boss. Ayatsu let out a sigh of relief.

“Good. Let me know the minute we’re ready to go online. I want to see this myself,” Ayatsu ordered his underling. The technician nodded, and at the exact same moment a sharp knocking on the glass of Ayatsu’s office window came from behind.

_Slowly_ he turned around to see what was happening. The glass was bulletproof, but Ayatsu knew perfectly well any one of his enemies had more firepower than any gun. Still, the intruder didn’t _look_ dangerous. It was a helmet, with tiny arms and feet sticking out from it, waving an orange sword around like it was trying to get Ayatsu’s attention. A beam of light flowed up from the Chibi Gamer’s eyes, forming a screen. On it was Kiriya Kujo, one of GENM’s Riders.

“Hi there, Ayatsu-san,” he said informally and made a melodramatic bow. “I’ve got some super-important information for you.”

Naturally, Ayatsu looked back at the doctor with suspicion. “And what could you possibly be willing to offer me, Rider?”

Kiriya held up the Maximum Mighty X Gashat. “I found one of Ex-Aid’s most powerful games,” he answered. “And it could be yours instead, for the right price.”

A scowl hardened Ayatsu’s face. “I’m not an idiot. I know Ex-Aid’s the only Kamen Rider in the world who could use that game.”

As if contrasting Ayatsu’s expression, Kiriya’s face broke out into a grin. “It’s exactly because you’re smart enough to appreciate my offer that I’m taking the risk to talk to someone as formidable as you, Ayatsu-san. After all, if _you_ have this game, then CR doesn’t.”

Ayatsu glared into the hologram. Then he reached over to push a button on his desk.

“Get Kedamono in here. I’ve got a job for him.”

XXX

It was Yoshoku’s turn to watch the Machina Vision building, but he almost dropped his binoculars when a helmet with big feet hopped on the windowsill and waved its orange sword to get his attention. A holographic screen issued up from the Brave Knight’s eyes, showing Kiriya Kujo standing with trees behind him somewhere.

“Hi, kiddos,” he smiled. “Keep an eye on the building for a little bit longer. As soon as Buster leaves, get in and get Rei-chan’s friend out.”

“Wait a minute…what are _you_ gonna do?” Yoshoku demanded.

“Buy you some time,” Kiriya answered. “Don’t waste it.”

The Chibi Gamer disintegrated outside the window.

XXX

With nothing else to keep her engaged, Kiiko went down to the patient room in the CR Ward and laid down. Normally she would’ve gone back to the little room she’d created for herself above that little park, but scanning the city for the game had exhausted her more than she thought. It seemed like she’d barely closed her eyes when she heard the door whoosh open. Kiiko opened one eyelid to see who was there, then yelped in fright.

It was Parado. Leaning right in front of her face.

“What do you think you’re doing?!?” Kiiko squealed and scrambled to sit straight up.

He looked back at her silently, then shambled over to the chair in the corner and sat down. “You’re Poppy’s kid sister,” he muttered. “The one who’s been keeping an eye on those new Kamen Riders, like that kid Utsura.”

Kiiko sat up, on top of her knees, slowly composing herself. “Yeah, basically. What are you doing down here?”

Parado got up and walked over to her, squinting hard while he studied her. After a minute, he asked, “What _are_ you?”

“What?!”

He kept squinting and walked around the edge of the bed to look at her from another angle like he hadn’t heard the question. “What _are_ you?” he repeated. “You’re part human and you’re part Bugster? What does that make you, Mishiranu?”

“That _is_ what it makes me,” Kiiko replied. Parado squinted at her even harder and tilted his head the other way. “I’m Kiiko Mishiranu. That’s what I am. Why does what I am need a name?” She put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him back, giving Parado an irritated look the whole time. After a few more seconds he stopped staring at her and sat down in the corner of the room.

“Everyone needs to be something,” Parado replied, his voice a little sullen now instead of suspicious. Kiiko wasn’t sure she thought it was an improvement. “But you can even combine with humans?” Parado went on.

Now it was Kiiko’s turn to squint at him in confusion. “Why are you sneaking in here when I’m asleep and interrogating me about this anyway?” she demanded.

Parado didn’t say anything for a while, and Kiiko was going from surprised to annoyed with him really fast. Eventually he said, “I’ve been gone for a long time. Everything’s different,” he said. “And besides…even when we won, I had nothing to do anymore.”

Kiiko’s expression softened. “What do you mean?” she asked.

He shrugged. “What are Kamen Riders supposed to do except fight?” Parado asked. “There were no villains left to fight. It looks like there might be no enemies left to fight again soon. Where does this all go?”

The question hung in the air between the two of them.

When Kiiko answered it, all she could think to say was, “Why are you asking _me_??”

His expression was impossible to read. Not that Kiiko had enough social experience to think about doing such a thing on her best day. Finally, though, Parado answered, “You hang around with all those kids, right? Don’t human kids spend all their time playing games and thinking about their futures?”

“So you think that means they know everything that’s going to happen?” Kiiko asked with slightly less disbelief than last time.

Parado shrugged. “It makes more sense than asking adults. They don’t know anything about the future. All they think about is what’s right in front of them.”

She was about to open her mouth, but closed it again. Was Parado really wrong? Kids, youths, had all kinds of dreams about what to do when they grew up and had their freedom. But adults…most of the adults Kiiko saw, even the veteran Kamen Riders, seemed locked into their courses. Taking things one day at a time and rarely seeming to dream big like the youth had. Probably the only thoughts the Kamen Riders had about what to do after the monsters were finally defeated for good was go back to their original medical jobs.

“Why are you asking me that question?” Kiiko asked him back.

He gave her a silent, level look. “Can monsters like Bugsters live with humans, after this is over?” Parado replied.

“I don’t know,” Kiiko answered, then held out her hand to Parado. “But maybe we can find out together.”

Parado’s expression didn’t change. He took her hand anyway.

XXX

A limousine pulled up outside Machina Vision headquarters. Tousen Kedamono, unmistakable with his shiny bald head and even shinier mirrored sunglasses, came out the front door and got in. Before it even got out the gates, Yoshoku and Rei were dashing out of the hotel room and to the elevators.

Yoshoku looked over at Rei, who was totally stone-faced. He thought about saying something to help her get ready for the rescue she’d been waiting for all this time. Then again, he figured, how could Rei not be ready for this? It was the only thing she’d been planning since before she’d ever met him.

They got off on the top floor and went to the stairs to the roof they’d picked days ago for exactly this moment. Without a word from either of them, they transformed, Yoshoku opening his Chase Billion’s briefcase as soon as it was in his hands. He selected the menu option that read “Rustic Hunting Trip”. His rifle flickered with a puff of pixels and was reshaped into a hunting crossbow.

Kamen Rider Sling aimed and fired his shot. It whizzed across the gap between the buildings, uncoiling a rope behind it. As soon as it hit the wall Sling’d been aiming for and they fastened the other end of the rope, both Riders slid across it to the roof of Machina Vision. Not to Sling’s surprise at all, Kamen Rider Zero dropped off first and went into a somersault.

She pressed a tiny rectangular device to the electronic door lock. Numbers flashed through the little screen across its top and after a second the lock clicked and the door whirred open.

They’d gone over the route they were taking to get to the secure room they’d seen Ayatsu Shuugouteki enter a few times. There was going to be heavy opposition, they were sure, but if Kamen Rider Buster was gone, Sling was pretty sure they could handle any other surprises the building could throw at them.

At least, that was what he hoped.

XXX

The wind seemed to pick up at the exact moment Kiriya saw the limousine come into sight of the old factory’s front drive. After it stopped the driver got out and ran to the back door and opened it. Kiriya actually had to smile at the spectacle of two thick legs sticking out through the door and Tousen Kedamono prying his massive muscular body out of the narrow door.

But that was when he _grew_. Kedamono stood all the way up and cast a shadow over Kiriya from where the car was parked. He walked over to Kiriya and only seemed to get even bigger. “So, do you want to start, or should I?” Kiriya said with his cockiest smile.

Kedamono was silent, but Kiriya had been expecting that. Instead, a Chibi Gamer of a pirate ship flew by and projected a little holographic screen showing Ayatsu Shuugouteki sitting in his office.

With the most superior little smirk on his face Kiriya Kujo had ever seen. And he was a master of more than a few of those himself. “Hello, Dr. Kujo. I believe you have something that you’d be interested in selling me,” Ayatsu said.

“If the price is right,” Kiriya answered.

“I’ll see the merchandise first,” Ayatsu snapped. With a nod, Kiriya got the Maximum Mighty X game from his inside jacket pocket. “How do I know that’s the real thing?” Ayatsu asked, fixing Kiriya with a suspicious glare.

The doctor just shrugged and used one of his own superior little smirks. “Well, Ex-Aid could use it,” he suggested. “I can call him, you know.”

Ayatsu’s smirk turned into a scowl over clenched teeth. “You’re an idiot if you think I have any reason to try to make a deal with you, Rider,” he spat. “Kedamono, crush him and take that game.” The screen showing Ayatsu faded out and the little pirate ship with it. Kedamono tossed his sunglasses over his shoulder and in the next second had a VR visor on over his face instead. Just as quickly, Kiriya locked the yellow Bakusou Bike cartridge into his belt, the black Giri Giri Chambara next to it.

“ **Henshin!** ”

Kiriya kicked the icon showing Kamen Rider Laser, a form he hadn’t thought having a serious fight in since before he’d been revived. “ **Third Gear!** ” He shifted into his stocky Level 1 form only for the arms and legs to immediately pop off, leaving a wheel-less yellow motorcycle floating off the ground. The black and gold Gamer of his Giri Giri Chambara cartridge flew out of the title screen above him, its arms and legs replacing his own as he completed the transformation into Kamen Rider Laser.

Immediately he split his Gashacon Sparrow into a pair of mini scythes and settled back into a fighting stance. His mere Level 3 form was pitiful compared to the huge form of his enemy. Not for the first time since coming back, Laser wished he could still use the Bug Visor and games that’d given him the awesome power of a Level X form. But he wasn’t a Bugster anymore, and those Proto Gashats were still missing.

But Laser wasn’t planning on winning this fight.

“Shall we dance?” he asked playfully.

XXX

Today was shaping up to be an unusually good day, and that made Ayatsu Shuugouteki allow himself a smile. He was about to be rid of one of GENM’s Kamen Riders, admittedly the weakest one by far, but at the same time keep one of their biggest threats from reclaiming a massive chunk of his power. The project was finally about to go online, and then Machina Vision could start showing the world the many joys of combining their minds in unity.

As soon as he had that, he’d never need to worry about any of his enemies. Not even Hourakou Byougen, with all his diseased powers…

Then the intercom on his desk buzzed and ruined his entire good mood. “Sir? A group of people from the Ministry of Health are in the lobby, and say they need to talk to you right away.”

“I’m about to attend a very important demonstration,” Ayatsu said as calmly as he could, since he had no doubt the visitors could hear him. “I’m afraid this will have to wait.”

“Shuugouteki-san, this isn’t up for discussion,” a sharp female voice came back. “We know you’ve passed inspections in the past, but a Dr. Kujo’s forwarded some very suspicious video content of goings-on in your labs. We need to see them, _right now_.”

Ayatsu’s blood froze. No, no, this couldn’t possibly happen now. He couldn’t be denied at a time like this, when he was right on the verge of his ultimate victory.

An idea entered his mind. An infuriating idea. Had Kiriya Kujo tricked him by luring his bodyguard out of the building?

And had Ayatsu gotten so sloppy through all these battles and confrontations with powerful enemies, he’d let himself be tricked?

He let out a scream of rage that shook the window glass.

XXX

Another pair of Auto Player androids threw themselves at the intruders. One grabbed Sling’s crossbow and wrestled with him for it. The other twirled an electrified staff in front of itself like a propeller to try to keep Zero from getting close enough to land a hit.

So Zero unholstered her golden pistol and fired three shots, penetrating both of the robot’s eyes and its main battery. It sputtered electrically and crashed down to the floor. Zero looked down at the twitching robot for a second, wishing that’d been Ayatsu Shuugouteki, before she turned around and put a bullet through the head of Sling’s opponent. He kicked the Auto Player off of him. “Thanks,” Sling panted.

“Let’s just go,” Zero grunted to answer him before she ran down the hall. Sling followed, but he was shaking his head. What would they find when they got to the room? And how was Zero going to take it when they did?

Soon they came to have a huge metal vault door. Zero ran to the keypad next to the door and plugged her gadget into it. Numbers flicked by on its screen even faster than the first time, then machinery behind the door groaned and it started sliding aside. Zero ducked through the opening as soon as it was wide enough. Sling followed cautiously, sweeping the hall for any more guards.

He peered over his shoulder into the room. A boy about their age, maybe a little younger, was sitting inside strapped to a chair at a desk covered in computer monitors. His face was streaked with sweat and his eyes were being held open by a framework attached to the back of his chair. Kamen Rider Zero was crouching with her arms around him, sobbing softly.

Sling turned away for a minute, to give her the chance to let her process what had become of her best friend. But Zero just stayed there, tears trickling out underneath the eyes of her mask. Finally Sling turned back to them. He scrolled to a menu option that said “Luxury Hunting Knife” and used the foot-long blade to start cutting Dai Gakusha out of his bonds.

“We have to go, Rei,” Sling whispered, as calmly but as firmly as he could. She nodded, sniffed one more time and started cutting the prisoner free too. After his arm was free, Dai carefully pried the framework out of his eyelids, and shut his eyes with a sigh of relief that sounded like it’d been building up for a long, long time. When the Riders’ knives cut through the strap around his neck he slumped forward in exhaustion.

But he waved a hand underneath his desk, and Sling found a locked briefcase underneath. He remembered the time Kensei had been trapped in the Machina Vision building, and been able to get out with new games prepared by some mysterious benefactor. It seemed they knew for sure who it was now. If he’d made other new weapons, it would be a good idea to have them.

“It really is you, Rei,” Dai muttered as they grabbed him by the shoulders and carried him out of the room. “And you made another friend,” he chuckled. “I guess Kamen Riders really can do the impossible.”

“Not now, Dai-chan,” Zero said, patting his cheek and talking with a tenderness Sling had never heard in her voice before. Sling looked away from their display as hard as he could.

“Yeah, we need to get out of here before the boss figures out we’re here and sends the whole goon squad after us,” Sling warned. He held up a black keycard laced with golden circuitry. “I got the key to the back elevator.”

They lurched down the halls to the escape route they planned, dragging Dai over the shattered remains of several Auto Player guards. There were no sounds. No resistance. “Is it seeming to anybody else like this is too easy?” Sling asked.

Zero hissed at him. “Don’t jinx it.”

Sling tilted his head. “When did you get superstitious?”

Dai coughed. “I think ‘the boss’ is busy right now. With those people from the ministry, and probably the creepy guy who told me you two were coming.”

Both Riders stopped in their tracks. “Creepy guy?” they said at the same time.

XXX

Ayatsu steeled himself while the elevator was shooting down from the top floor of the building. He’d had inspections from the ministry before. He’d just show them the labs, make up something about how the footage they’d seen had obviously been faked, and send the ministry people on their way. Just like always.

He was the boss. He would handle this.

He stepped out of the elevator and saw the two ladies in black suits standing by the security desk. One of them was showing the guards footage on a tablet. Footage that looked an awful lot like a person with a purple virus-shaped head twitching and screaming in agony. The guards mouths hung open in shock.

As fast as he could, Ayatsu strode up to the security desk. “Ladies,” he said. “I’m sorry to see you called out here so suddenly. Do you mind telling me what this is all about?”

One of the ministry’s agents, a severe older woman with naturally-looking narrowed eyes, tucked the tablet under her arm and walked up to Ayatsu. “Do yourself a favor, Shuugouteki-san, and drop the innocent act,” she said. “We know you have those things trapped in your building’s basement. Corrupture Cells. Humans who are victims of the Corrupture virus, and your people are running these…experiments on them.”

“Madam, do you mind telling me where this…,” Ayatsu paused, mimicking the agent’s own disgusted pause. “Evidence, of yours, came from? Am I not legally entitled to know such things?”

“It came from a doctor who’s been involved in trying to solve this virus crisis since before it got a new name,” the lady replied, not budging under Ayatsu’s withering gaze. “Please,” she prompted him. “Let’s see where these ‘experiments’ are taking place, and you can tell us what you are intending to do with your findings. And, most importantly, why the authorities have not been informed of what you were doing.”

Ayatsu said nothing. The agent still refused to retreat, raising her eyebrows up and then back down again, as if telling him to answer her questions again. “Those are very serious accusations,” Ayatsu said.

“And you know every word of them’s true,” said a taunting, and worse, very _familiar_ voice. The Ministry of Health agents backed away, a flicker of fear in the older woman’s eyes now, and Ayatsu knew it wasn’t from him. He turned slowly, a giggle coming from behind him. Exactly like he’d been expecting, Hourakou Byougen was standing there. What he hadn’t been expecting was for the invader to have on a bright red onesie with red devil horns atop his head. Hourakou’s face was painted a shiny red too, and he had a plastic trident in his hand.

“Hi!” Hourakou exclaimed with an overdone grin, and waved at the entire lobby with his empty hand.

The sight of his enemy almost forced Ayatsu to his knees in fear. He tried to compose himself, for all the good it’d do. “What,” Ayatsu asked, “do you think you’re doing here?”

Hourakou laughed. A loud, jovial laugh like he’d heard the world’s best joke. It was the most terrifying sound Ayatsu had ever heard. “Why shouldn’t I be here?” the devil asked. “You invited me!”

“How did _I_ ,” Ayatsu whispered in undisguised horror, “invite _you_??”

The grin on Hourakou’s face was getting unsettling. “You brought the Cells here, so you could run your little experiments on them,” he replied. “I’m everywhere the Corrupture are, therefore, I’m here!”

Ayatsu couldn’t stand it anymore. He turned and he ran. That made Hourakou giggle louder, and he kept giggling as his body melted into purple goop that crawled across the walls and floor.

XXX

A cracking that sounded like the end of the world reverberated up from underneath Kamen Rider Laser, who was already at the height of his jump. He raked his scythes across Kamen Rider Buster’s eyes, the giant warrior not even seeming to notice. Laser planted his feet on the giant’s forehead and vaulted off just before Buster slapped himself on the forehead and missed by a fraction of an inch. There was a *BOOM* that sounded like it should’ve split Buster’s head open but Laser knew better than to hope for something so simple to finish that fight.

Before Laser landed he joined his weapons back into a bow, turned and aimed at the limousine. The driver gasped in horror and ran for all he was worth before Laser fired a pair of arrows into Buster’s limousine. They pierced the side and it went up in a satisfying fireball. “Looks like you’re walking home. Sorry about that,” Laser chuckled. Suddenly a huge hand crashed down on top of him and pushed him into the ground. A panicked yell of pain erupted from his mouth and he scratched at the inside of Buster’s huge hand with his scythes. Buster didn’t even move from the touch of the blades.

“You’re big _and_ fast,” Laser groaned. “Your powers are impressive. I still have something you don’t, though.”

Buster grunted and started closing his fingers around Laser’s body. Inside the fist, Laser’s armor groaned at the pressure. Through the pain Laser wondered if his games would even eject if he was being crushed, and wondered if getting another Game Over would be better or worse than being squished.

A sound interrupted his grim thoughts: squealing tires. Two little race cars ramped over the fiery remains of Buster’s limousine. One pink, one white. Sitting in the pink one was the unmistakable, equally pink figure of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, with the powerful red-and-blue presence of Kamen Rider Paradox crouched on the back. At the wheel of the white car was Kamen Rider Utsura, his suit a sheer white lookalike of Ex-Aid’s.

On the back of Utsura’s car was the super-deformed shape of the Brave Knight Chibi Gamer. The one Laser had sent to bring help. Looked like the little sprite had done his job. “Hey, it’s Phase 3! Glad you could make it!” Laser laughed as well as he could while clutched in the crushing fingers of their giant enemy.

“Kiriya-san! Are you okay?” Ex-Aid called up to him.

“Not really, Emu,” Laser gasped, Buster tightening his grip around his prisoner. “If you could get me down soon I’d really like that!” Buster raised his other hand and brought it down on top of where the new combatants had stopped. The Rider trio scattered as his fist came down like a bomb and smashed their race cars out of existence, and the force of his blow was so awesome the three Riders were knocked off the ground from it.

Ex-Aid recovered his balance first. “Saving him’s our first priority!” he called to the others.

“I’ll hit Buster with everything I have!” Utsura said, switching his Sensou Chambara game into his belt. “ **Level UP!** ” the Driver exclaimed. His thick samurai armor pieced itself together over his body and after stabbing his arm through its icon, Utsura pulled his ridiculously-colored naginata back out.

Then he launched himself at Kamen Rider Buster. All the armor kept him from packing the speed or distance into his jump he otherwise would’ve had, but the huge enemy needed all the power he had and more. His shoulder slammed into Buster’s chest and he thought he felt the giant forced back a little bit. Utsura fell to the ground and immediately Buster’s huge first came down at him just as Utsura had a chance to plant his feet. The enormous fist hit Utsura right between the shoulders and his armor groaned, but the smaller fighter took the chance to go on the offensive, slashing his weapon band forth across Buster’s arm, leaving trails of HIT graphics with every swing.

“Now, Parado!” Ex-Aid yelled.

“I don’t need you to remind me,” Kamen Rider Paradox yelled back. Both of them jumped and hit Buster’s elbow with their weapons at the same time, the blade of Ex-Aid’s Gashacon Breaker and the axe of Paradox’s Parabragun. Buster’s arm twitched, the fingers hold Kamen Rider Laser slipping open just enough to tantalize them.

Utsura stabbed his Gashacon Nata into Buster’s hip and jumped back to give himself some breathing room. “Kiiko, I need some help! Can you see any weak points?” he asked.

“ _I’m still tired, but…look at his arm!_ ” her voice replied in his ear.

He nodded. “I see it! That glowing spot right on the front of the wrist. Wonder if your power’s getting stronger.”

A warm sensation that made him think of a blush washed over his brain. “Is this really the right time?” she asked in a mental whisper.

“No, you’re right,” he replied. “Emu-san! Parado-san!” he called out. Just before Buster whirled his arm above his head and released the fist on a giant chain like a mace at the young Rider.

XXX

It was like a nightmare Ayatsu couldn’t wake up from. A hideous purple film was crawling along the walls, ceiling and floors behind him. It covered the first light panel with a crunch, and a face formed out of the wall. “Faster, faster! It’s right behind you!” Hourakou giggled at him.

Running for his very life, Ayatsu rounded a corner and stabbed a keycard into its hidden slot. A wooden panel whirred open revealing a secret elevator. He ducked inside and hit the emergency close behind him. It would get him to the laboratory in no time at all, and then Hourakou Byougen would see just what kind of mistake he’d made.

Usually Ayatsu didn’t feel anything when he took the elevator to the lab. After a few seconds he felt the car shake worryingly. Hourakou’s giant purple…infection must have gotten into the elevator shaft. A cold feeling of fear clenched his stomach. Again the car shook. Finally the door opened again to the secret lab and Ayatsu threw himself through the entrance. He landed on his stomach, shocking the scientist he almost knocked over.

“Hurry!” Ayatsu barked. “Start up the matrix! We’re testing it right now!”

“…Sir?”

“HELP ME UP!” The frightened scientist held out his hand and pulled his boss back up, then ran after Ayatsu as he sprinted into the heart of the lab, afraid of what his boss would do to him if he didn’t follow.

They stopped in front of the main console that was to control Ayatsu Shuugouteki’s great machine. It’d only been installed a few hours ago, to await the first time it would be activated, and every button, every edge shined. Even though his hands were trembling, Ayatsu started punching a combination of buttons.

More of his scientists gathered around, an awful silence filling the laboratory that was only broken by the sound of the machinery coming to life in all corners of the hidden room. “Sir?” the boldest of them finally asked. “Is everything all right?”

“Don’t you know what’s going on above us?”

“No, sir,” the scientist answered. “You’re the only one authorized to communicate into the lab. We haven’t heard anything.”

Ayatsu finished entering the code and meters on the console in front of him went from dark to glowing with power. “Is everything ready to activate the matrix?” he asked, ignoring his previous question.

“Of course, sir. All the subjects were installed, since you wanted to test it—”

“Then get ready to test it,” Ayatsu cut him off. “Let these Corrupture bastards see the power of the human mind.”

XXX

Everything darkened as Kamen Rider Buster’s enormous fist came rocketing down at Utsura. Instead of evading, the young samurai threw his weapon aside and raised his arms in front of his face to block. Just before the attack hit them he heard Kiiko make a tiny, terrified “eep” in his brain.

It was an awesome impact and blew Utsura back almost twenty feet. But he was on his feet the whole time, his boots tearing ditches in the dirt. In the corner of his eye, the little “Serenity” meter was almost at the top after taking that hit without taking damage.

Buster’s fist retracted and he shot it out at Utsura again. Kamen Rider Paradox jumped out and brought his axe down, its head surrounded by flames, chopping through the chain. The fist went wild and sheared the edge off the old factory.

Utsura clapped Paradox on the back. “Great save! Thanks, you were just in time!” he exclaimed.

“I wasn’t trying to save _you_ ,” Paradox mumbled.

Now wasn’t the time to follow up on that. “Emu-san!” he yelled. “Follow us!” He grabbed his naginata and charged Kamen Rider Buster. The giant Rider seemed unsure what to do with his fist severed and his other hand clenched around his prisoner, and Utsura took advantage of that moment of confusion. He slashed the blade of the naginata across the bright weak spot his combined senses showed.

Ex-Aid and Paradox were next, both blades slamming into the thin vulnerable spot Utsura’s attack had shown them. The giant Rider’s fingers twitched and Kamen Rider Laser dropped from his hand.

“Emu-san, quick!” Laser gasped. “Pull out the Level 3 game and ride me clear!” Ex-Aid tilted his head but pulled the black cartridge out of Laser’s Driver as instructed. Immediately Laser’s arms and legs popped off and the wheels of his motorcycle form reattached. Kamen Rider Ex-Aid swung himself onto the seat and zoomed away while Buster punched both of the other Riders at the same time.

Looking over his shoulder, Ex-Aid asked, “Did you really get it, like your message said?”

Laser gasped in mock horror. “I’m hurt you don’t believe me, Emu-san. I thought we were partners.” He twisted his front wheel to the right, indicating the bag hanging off that side. Ex-Aid plunged his hand inside and closed his fingers around a familiar shape. A small gasp in shock and relief escaped from his mouth as he recognized what he was holding. “Think you better use that quick, don’t you?” Laser asked.

“ **Level UP!** ”

Meanwhile, Kamen Rider Buster had grabbed Paradox and Utsura and slammed them together. Utsura barely felt it through his thick helmet but Paradox slumped back, stunned from the crash.

Just like Buster himself was when a big pink fist suddenly stretched out of nowhere and punched him in the face. He toppled like a tree, dropping the two smaller Riders and crushing the old factory building as he fell.

Utsura turned, and smiled inside his mask at what he saw. It was Ex-Aid, wearing a heavy mech suit with giant eyes peering out of the chest, gold-colored springs for its arms and legs. Sticking proudly out of both slots in this Gamer Driver was the cartridge for Maximum Mighty X. Paradox did a double-take when he saw who’d pulled him up. “It’s time to finish this fight,” Ex-Aid said. “Are you both ready?”

“Since we left,” Paradox answered.

As he said that, Utsura’s armor began to glow from his Serenity form getting enough power to go active. He reached between his shoulders, drawing a nodachi with a blade made entirely of light. “I’m ready. Let’s finish this!” he replied.

“ **Trinity Critical STORM!!!** ” all three of their Gamer Drivers announced at the same time as they started up their finishers.

Kamen Rider Paradox was first. He charged Buster, firing a bombardment of energy bullets from his weapon then flipping the top around to change it to an axe again. He jumped high enough to look Buster straight in the eye, then somersaulted as he came down and hacked his flaming axe at the giant Rider’s wrist, burying his arm halfway into the dirt

Next was Utsura. Hacking his giant sword into Buster’s other wrist and punning that arm to the ground too. Buster twisted his head and stared down at the smaller samurai Rider, silent hatred seeming radiate from his mask. He tried to pull his arm free but Utsura pressed back and with the power of his Serenity mode and held it down. For a few more seconds…

That was all the last Rider would need. Ex-Aid ran up in huge stomping steps before he blasted into the air with jets in his mech suit’s boots. He came down feet-first on Buster’s eyes and started drumming with his armor’s giant boots. Faster. Faster. Cracks formed in Buster’s visor from Ex-Aid’s feet pounding it in. Ex-Aid grabbed the sides of Buster’s head and stretched the coils around his arms out until they’d extended almost fifteen feet.

Then they snapped back.

Ex-Aid slingshoted into Buster’s face with a horrifying *CRACK* that made the Riders pinning his arms cringe. Buster rolled back a few times, his armor glowing and shrinking. When he stopped the Gashat ejected from his visor and he’d reverted to normal. For the first time, Utsura saw the enforcer without his sunglasses, and Kedamono’s eyes were wide with disbelief at what’d happened. He grabbed his game from the ground and disappeared down an alley as fast as he could go, a small purple cloud floating out of the sleeves of his blazer and evaporating.

With the battle over, GENM’s Riders pulled the games from their Drivers and changed back, too. Emu ran over to where Laser was parked and pulled his remaining game out of its socket, changing him back to normal too. “What made you pull a stunt like this?” Emu asked as he examined Kiriya. “You could’ve died! Wasn’t once enough?”

“Twice,” Kiriya coughed, but smiled.

“…right, twice,” Emu reminded himself, and had to smile back at his old friend.

While Emu examined him, Kensei walked up to Parado. “Those were some awesome moves you had back there! I’m glad you’re on our side!” he said and extended a thumbs-up.

Parado didn’t return the gesture. “You kids can learn a lot from us experienced Riders,” he said. “Be glad we’re willing to show you.”

Looking a little self-conscious now, Kensei lowered his hand and nodded. Parado was looking right past him, at where Kiiko stood, looking back.

XXX

A shudder came from the doors of the secret elevator. Ayatsu did his best to ignore it. He peered through the window into the chamber below where a large number of placid subjects were sitting in concentric circles, each larger than the one inside it. Their brains had been numbed long ago to focus their mental energies to be channeled into the matrix he was about to unleash for the first time. To a shortsighted mind it seemed cruel, but after the human race was joined into one mental force, no-one would be able to deny its worthiness.

Around the walls of the chamber were captured Corrupture Cells, the inhuman vermin who nonetheless had achieved the mental connection that had made Ayatsu’s dream a reality. They struggled inside transparent tubes that would conduct their attributes once Ayatsu activated everything.

“We’ll be able to activate in two minutes, sir,” a scientist said, his face streaked with sweat, more from fear of his boss’s inhuman focus than their efforts fine going online.

“Hellooooooo! I know you can hear me down there!” Hourakou Byougen’s familiar voice giggled over a loudspeaker. Turning his head, Ayatsu saw exactly what he expected: the Corrupture’s grinning face staring right into a security monitor. “How can leave me out of something so big, with all the help I’ve given you?!” Hourakou pouted.

Ayatsu said, his voice full of cold disgust, “Because you’re nothing but filth. A disease that can _talk_ is still just a disease. I’m going to show you how small you are, Corrupture.”

Hourakou’s pout turned into an expression of exaggerated shock. Then it turned into a mocking smirk. “Want to make a bet, Shuugouteki- _sama_? Like your life??”

“How about you save your little jokes and start saying your prayers, instead?” Ayatsu suggested.

Like always, Hourakou just giggled. “ _I’m_ the closest thing to a god this world’s ever seen. Why should I pray to myself?”

“Guess you’ll have nowhere to go in a minute, then,” Ayatsu said, then threw the switch.

A thundering whine reverberated from the machinery. Down in the chamber where the subjects were gathered a ball of white light formed, beams tracing from the forehead of each subject. It got bigger until it filled the entire room. Then it _exploded_.

It was like nothing Ayatsu Shuugouteki could’ve described. A wave of power passed through his body, and for that second he was connected to all those people, all those _minds_ , and could see memories, people, _worlds_ he never knew about. Then it whipped passed him, out through the entire building in a great cleaning blast. He staggered to the security feeds and saw the purple filth of the Corrupture that’d been covering the halls dissolve away as the energy pulse he’d unleashed traveled outward.

In less than a minute the Machina Vision building was swept completely clean of the Corrupture infestation above. The only thing out of place were the dazed Ministry of Health employees sitting on the floor up in the lobby.

“…it worked,” the thought lit up in Ayatsu’s mind. “IT WORKED. I destroyed the leader of the Corrupture! GENM’s been fighting that thing for years, and I just decapitated that whole disease!”

“Congratulations, sir!” a pair of scientists exclaimed at the same time, gave each other a sour look, and put on their best obsequious smiles.

“We must have some champagne in this building somewhere,” Ayatsu smiled himself, suddenly feeling very, _very_ tired, but triumphant at the same time.

“Sure you do. You had a gofer get some three months ago and still haven’t touched it,” said a voice that sent a horrifying chill up Ayatsu’s spine.

He tripped over his own feet turning to see where it came from, even though he already knew. Standing there was Hourakou Byougen, wearing a black hooded robe and carrying a shiny scythe like the Grim Reaper. A trail of purple slime led from his feet to the sealed window between the control room and the one where the subjects were being kept.

And the Corrupture Cells, Ayatsu reminded himself with a dry throat.

One of the scientists exclaimed, “But the boss just destroyed you!”

“You thought I was just one person,” Hourakou taunted. “I’m the sum total of the Corrupture’s ambition and power. I can be anywhere the Corrupture virus spreads. You can’t put a bullet in my head and be rid of me.” He slid across the floor and loomed inches away from Ayatsu’s face. “That’s not how it works with you humans, does it?”

Ayatsu’s hand reached for the main switch to activate his matrix machinery. Nothing happened. Shooting a glance into the room with the linked subjects, he saw the room covered in a bubbling purple mess. It crawled over the subjects, covering them and turning their heads into the same shining purple viruses as the Corrupture Viruses. There was nothing to empower his machinery for a second blast…

Hourakou grabbed Ayatsu by the chin, wearing the most malicious smile Ayatsu had ever seen in his entire career as a CEO. “Do you know why we’re called the Corrupture, Shuugouteki- _sama_?” he asked, then before the terrified executive had the chance to answer, Hourakou gave it to him. “Because we will corrupt the human program. You thought humanity was the most powerful species on the planet. You never thought the power of the humble virus was a threat, even with everything you’ve seen we can do. It’s time for you to learn, once and for all.”

“I thought you wanted this to be a game,” Ayatsu whispered, stalling for time the only thing he could think to do in this desperate situation. “Thought you wanted to make my company compete with GENM.”

The Corrupture leader loomed in even closer, the amused glimmer in his eyes turning hateful. “Ah, but you were really planning to compete with _me_ ,” he whispered. “Besides, the arrogant men learning he should fear the villain’s power is such a great old RPG trope (I think it’s number 49), I was afraid I wouldn’t get the chance to use it if the Ministry of Health shut you down. And I do have to create the proper gaming experience, don’t I?”

Again Hourakou didn’t wait for an answer. His body _burst,_ splattering Ayatsu and the nearest scientists with purple slime. They twitched and screamed in pain, their heads transforming into the virus-shaped craniums of Corrupture Cells.

While that happened, carpets of bubbling purple matter crawled over the walls and ceiling again.

XXX

Kamen Rider Sling kicked the door open and they dragged Dai out onto the roof.

“Hurry up!” Zero yelled over at him, glancing back at the tide of purple Corrupture infection surging up the stairs behind them.

“Don’t worry about me,” Dai mumbled, half-unconscious. “Get out of here before it gets you both…” He shut up when Zero slapped his cheek.

Sling stepped away from them and wordlessly opened the briefcase he wore across his back. He flipped through the display as fast as he could until he saw the one for “Hang Gliding Excursion” zip by. The amount of fictional money on the display was still going down when a huge hang glider showing a red serpentine dragon across it formed around them. “You think you can jump the railing while we’re holding onto him?” Sling asked.

“We better hope so!” Zero replied. She started into a run and Sling ran too, one hand wrapped around Dai’s back and the other clenched around the hang glider’s bar. They bent and launched themselves into the air, then air caught the expanse of the glider and they floated out over the city.

A few minutes moments of silence passed between them, and it was broken by Dai’s weak laughter. “I don’t believe it…I’m finally out, and I’m escaping in a hang glider. This is either a dream or the best day ever,” he laugh-muttered.

“It’s been a crazy day,” Zero muttered herself. “I get the feeling Corrupture virus covering the whole building wasn’t part of Kirya’s plan.”

Sling looked back behind them, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t like that either. I wonder what else was going on when we were—”

He was cut off as the entire Machina Vision building popped like a giant concrete and glass bubble. Debris flew everywhere. One long spear of concrete sliced through the back of their glider and through the bar they were holding onto.

Which meant they were suddenly spinning totally out of control.

Both Riders held onto Dai and onto the bar even when it started going in different directions. Sparks flew up from the glider frame hitting the ground and spinning across an entire block before finally riding out its momentum.

Before he could see straight Sling managed to ask, “Is everyone okay?”

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod,” Zero was whispering over and over. Sling could see why: pieces of glass were lodged in Dai’s back, surrounded by frightening red stains. That wasn’t the only unwelcome sight that caught Sling’s oversized eyes, though. Someone was standing behind them, holding the briefcase Dai had made them bring with. It was Hourakou Byougen in a Grim Reaper costume.

Grinning evilly.

Holding the briefcase Dai had told them to take.

“You got me a present! You shouldn’t have!” he giggled.

“I didn’t, and you won’t keep that,” Sling growled, grabbing his crossbow.

“That’s a great idea!” Hourakou exclaimed. “Let’s play a game for you to win these back! For right now, though, you better make sure your friend gets to a hospital. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night for you Kamen Riders.”

Then Hourakou melted into a purple puddle that streamed away into the shadows, taking his prize with him.


	2. A Tense Reunion

“Citizens are advised to stay in their homes and leave outward-facing lights off if possible,” said the news anchor projected on the side of a skyscraper. People still in the streets didn’t need him to tell them about the danger they were already facing. Corrupture Cells, dressed in a variety of strange costumes from commandos to chefs to clowns, were rampaging ing through the streets. They surrounded people too slow to get away and blew thick purple mist over them. An unlucky woman screamed, but the sound turned into the monstrous burbling of a Corrupture Cell and her head expanded into a shiny purple virus shape.

A tide of shiny purple swept through city streets, growing bigger as they caught up to fleeing people and converted them too.

At least, at first.

Two teenage girls cowered against the wall they’d been chased back into by a wall of Corrupture Cells. Holding out countless hands and clawing at the air, the monsters approached, seeming to want the victims to savor their fate. Without warning a man in pale blue armor jumped down in front of the trapped girls, looking only a little bit garish compared with the pink and green coloration of his belt.

“Stay back!” Brave ordered and slashed his sword at the Corrupture Cells. Its blue blade flashed and a cocoon of ice covered the Corrupture. He slapped buttons on the hilt of his sword that made the blade flip around to orange. Another slash the other way left a trail of fire and the Cells burst into smoke. As always it whisked away into that portal holding all the Corruptures’ victims, until they returned again in this form, or another one.

He turned around and took the hand of the closer girl. “Let’s hurry and get somewhere safe. It’s going to be a long night for us Riders.”

“A long knight?”

“Just come on.”

XXX

Another Kamen Rider in a massive mech suit with coiled springs for arms and legs delivered an exhausted but grateful family to their house. He waited until he heard them lock the door before he turned to leave. The sounds of them piling furniture in front of the door was just more reassurance.

A blast from his boots took Ex-Aid into the air where he landed on a rooftop six stories high and went into a clanking run. Once he got to the edge Ex-Aid jumped to an even higher roof. Another jump to the highest roof of them all, and when his run took him to the edge of that roof he could see the familiar helipad on top of Seitou University Hospital in the distance. His suit’s legs stretched out then his boot jets fired. It was as close as he’d come to actually flying, and Ex-Aid had to think there was something freeing about it.

In the middle of even more chaos it was a feeling he welcomed. Once it had seemed like this was over, back after the battles with Masamune Dan. It should’ve been. A bunch of kids never should’ve had to do something as dangerous as become Kamen Riders, even if they’d managed to do alright.

Unfortunately the world he lived in wasn’t the world he would’ve liked it to be. Not yet, anyway. Hopefully soon, the world wouldn’t need Kamen Riders anymore.

Gravity asserted itself and came down on top of the hospital helipad with a dull *BOOM*. Maximum Mighty X came out of his belt and Doctor Emu Hojo took the hero’s place.

Emu had someone to check on after their last fight with him.

XXX

Forty-seven. Forty-eight. Forty-nine.

Fifty.

Kensei almost couldn’t get up from the leg-press machine, but reminded himself a Kamen Rider never gave up. He walked, slowly, over to where he left his towel and water bottle, and took a refreshing drink. It seemed like he should’ve been out there with the other Kamen Riders helping fight the Corrupture Cells who’d erupted out of the Machina Vision building, but Emu had insisted Kensei stick to his therapy schedule. He was still in recovery, after all.

Not for the first time, though, he asked himself why Parado was sitting in the corner of the Physical Therapy room, watching in ominous silence.

“Good job, Kensei!” Kiiko smiled and slapped him between the shoulders. He grimaced in pain so she stopped in the middle of a second one. “Are you getting stronger?” she asked instead.

“It feels like it,” Kensei said while he wiped the sweat off his forehead and arms. Quietly he added, “Is…Parado here watching you, by any chance? I hope he’s not here to watch _me_.”

Kiiko nodded slowly. “He wants me to show him what life’s like besides being a Kamen Rider.” She looked over her shoulder at Parado, who was looking straight at them but didn’t show any sign of objecting to them whispering to each other. “Or something like that.”

Kensei looked back at Parado too. “Do you need any help? I mean, he helped the other Riders before, but he was a villain before that—”

“I think it might be best if I handle this myself. I don’t think he wants to hurt me,” Kiiko replied. “He just…I don’t think he’s really comfortable asking anybody else. Because I’m kind of like he is, I guess.”

“Alright, but if you need any help—”

She patted him on his shoulder, much more gently this time, and smiled over at her oldest friend. “I know, but trust me,” Kiiko said.

“I do,” Kensei answered.

Her smile was the only answer he needed.

XXX

With a cautious eye in Parado’s direction, Kensei gathered up all his things and left the Physical Therapy room.

“Ah, Hidenaga-san!” Emu called, pretending to coincidentally be going the same way as he came down the hall and not pulling it off well enough to fool Kensei. “Mind if we talk a little bit?”

“If it’s not too long, I need to get home kind of soon. My mom’s been making sure I write down every single thing that happens to me so I can publish a book about the inside story after we beat the Corrupture,” Kensei replied, laughing a little.

Emu nodded and gave a friendly, but almost childish smile. “Your mom sounds really supportive. Does she know about everything you do, as a Kamen Rider?”

Kensei shrugged. “Not…everything. I’ve been telling her I’m in training when I’m here in PT. I don’t need her freaking out about that. And if I told _dad…_ ” he trailed off.

“Your father? Does he worry about you a lot?” Emu prompted gently.

A slightly nervous chuckle was the first response Kensei could think of. “I haven’t actually talked to my dad in a long time now. He’s kind of the opposite of my mom: he wishes other people would just take care of all these monsters and our family could just ignore it.”

“Ah, yeah. But everyone who helps in emergencies is part of _someone’s_ family,” Emu pointed out.

“Uh-huh. Doctor Hojo, no offense, but you didn’t just want to talk about me about my family, did you?”

The question got a sheepish grin from Emu. “I’m not the best at being sneaky, am I?”

Kensei shook his head.

Dropping all pretense, Emu said, “Kensei-san, I’m your doctor. It’s my job to worry about your health, and I’ve been getting more worried lately. You’ve been hurt a lot fighting Corrupture, and you’re still recovering from the worst of it. I’m just not sure it’s a good idea if you keep being out in front of so many fights, with things getting even worse than they were before.”

The response he got was what he’d been expecting to hear, though. “Look, I’ll keep working on getting my strength back, but I can’t leave now. I have to see this through to the end.”

“You’re sure about this?”

“It’s what my brother would do,” Kensei said. “It’s what _I_ need to do.”

Emu clapped a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Then let all of us help you win this game.”

Kensei put his own hand on top of Emu’s and nodded. “Let’s save the world.”

XXX

The front doors of Seitou University Hospital opened and Dr. Hiiro Kagami ran inside. He’d been out delivering rescued people to their homes when his phone had gone off: an emergency surgery case had come in. So of course, he’d come hurrying back, hoping things were settling down enough that the veteran Riders could do without him for a little while.

Next he went running upstairs to get prepped for surgery, but a voice called out to him, “It’s alright, Dr. Kagami.” He turned to where the voice came from and saw two exhausted-looking teenagers sitting on the floor near the entrance to the operating wing. One of them he recognized as one of those kid Riders, who’d been standing in while the original Riders were away.

And who, he noted, had disappeared weeks ago without a word.

The other one was a girl Hiiro didn’t quite recognize, and who was just sitting and staring at the wall with the boy’s arm around her shoulders.

“I was told there was an emergency surgery case,” Hiiro said, his voice hardening a little. “I don’t suppose that’s what you two are waiting on.”

“There was an emergency surgery, but it’s being taken care of,” Yoshoku replied. “Dr. Oharu supposed to be a genius surgeon, but Rei wants to wait around and make sure he comes out okay.”

“Dr. Oharu?” Hiiro asked. Wasn’t _he_ the country’s genius surgeon?

Yoshoku sighed and his head hung for a few seconds, like it was getting to be an effort for him to stay awake. “They said she’s good, but I don’t really follow healthcare news,” Yoshoku grunted. “We’re waiting until we hear the patient’s going to be okay.”

“Just don’t get in their way, you two,” Hiiro said, but looking past the two kids to the doors of the operating wing, wondering who this Dr. Oharu might be.

XXX

A well-placed shot took care of the last attacking Cell, sending it spiraling away to the sky as they always did when defeated.

“Get to safety while you still can!” Kamen Rider Snipe yelled down to the young couple he’d just saved from being converted. With the street clear again they didn’t need any excuse to leave, either to get away from more Corrupture or from the intimidating dark-armored figure with the oversized gun in one hand.

Snipe got out a miniature Gashat and triggered it. It made a holographic screen that showed the city. An icon of Ex-Aid’s head showed on the far side of the city in front of purple blips representing the Corrupture. They went out, not to Snipe’s surprise. The Kamen Riders were containing the sudden outbreak sooner than they’d expected.

All of a sudden Snipe saw a bunch of purple dots show up behind the icon showing his own head. An icy chill ran up Snipe’s back and he turned around, seeing a crowd of Cells climbing up the back of the low he was on top of, climbing on top of each other’s shoulders to get up to his level.

Kamen Rider Snipe barely had time to grab his Dual Gashat and twist its knob before the first of them scrambled over the railing and came rushing his way.

XXX

First thing that was obvious as he flew out over the city was that the Machina Vision was gone. Just a huge crater still emitting a few trails of smoke, with a disturbing purple tinge.

What all’d happened while he’d been out of town?

Something else caught his eye: a writhing sheet of purple covering a small building a ways away. That looked like trouble.

He stamped the bottom of his staff against the deck of the airship and it banked toward the infested building.

XXX

It was no good, there was just too many of them. Pinning Snipe to the floor, forcing his arm as far away from his belt as they could without ripping it off. Although with how hard some of the virus-headed monsters were starting to pull, he guessed that was what they had planned next.

Snipe fired his gun into the crowd of Corrupture Cells to give himself room to move, a few of them bursting and spiraling away to regenerate. More just swarmed over the Kamen Rider and pinned him to the roof hard enough to crack the cement.

All of a sudden the wind picked up. At first it was just a sharp breeze but seconds later it was turning into a roaring tornado overhead. Cells were whipped off him and flung in all directions after they spiraled to the top of the cone of wind. With his arms freed Kamen Rider Snipe slammed the Dual Gashat into his belt and in a flash had the heavy weaponry of his Level 50 form on as he stood up and blazed with cannons and missiles until the roof was covered in a purple cloud of defeated Corrupture.

When he saw the strange shape descending to the side of the building, Snipe aimed his cannons at that for a second. It was a giant boat, with propellers instead of sails, and its only passenger was a Kamen Rider in yellow armor and a long white cape, with a long staff whose jewel stopped glowing as the tornado that’d freed him died away.

“Taiga-senpai! Good to see you!” the Rider called with a cheerful wave.

“…Taiga-senpai?”

“It’s me! Kamen Rider Rune?.. Maybe you don’t really know us well enough yet? Oh well. How’ve you guys been?”

“A lot better,” Snipe muttered.

XXX

“Look, lady,” the dark figure asked, his shadow seeming to get even blacker, “I need to talk to Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. Or Brave, or even Utsura or _somebody_!”

The nurse squeaked and rolled her chair back a few inches, looking like she was seconds away from diving under the desk. “Sir, like I tried to tell you, we don’t have any way—”

“Lady, this is an _emergency_ ,” he repeated.

“Then maybe you’d better tell me instead of scaring the hospital staff,” someone said, walking up to the man despite the intimidating coat and broad-brimmed had that came with his armor. “We don’t get a lot of talent like yourself walking right into our front door like this,” Kensei observed, pulling open his jacket just enough to show he had a Gamer Driver hidden inside like the one around the strange man’s waist.

The man, Rider, nodded in silent agreement. “How about we take the stairs, and you can explain what’s going on somewhere private,” Kensei suggested.

XXX

After the door to the stairway had closed behind them, Kensei nodded for the Rider to go up the stairs first. He pulled the game out of his Driver and his armor faded away to an extremely nondescript boy. A little older than Kensei, maybe eighteen or nineteen. Dark hair. Glasses. White tee shirt and black jeans. “If it’s not rude for me to ask, which one are you?” the unknown Rider asked.

“Utsura,” Kensei replied. “If it’s not rude for me to ask, who are you, and what are you doing here asking to talk to the Kamen Riders?”

“Noir. Kamen Rider Noir,” he replied and started up the stairs. “Like a detective.”

Kensei nodded. “Ah, right. Like a detective. With the coat and the hat and everything.”

Noir nodded back. “What’s ‘Utsura’ supposed to be?”

“Like ‘avenging’,” Kensei replied. “Kind of. What’s the important stuff you needed to tell us about so badly, though?”

“Well,” Noir began. “Now I’m not sure you’ll believe me, but I’ll say it anyway. See, I was one of the winners from GENM’s tournament. I was the best player of their detective game, The Alderman Files. I solved the mystery faster than anybody else.”

They rounded the bend on the first landing. “How fast were you?” Kensei asked.

Before he answered, Noir chuckled, sounding awfully proud of himself. “Six hours.”

“And how fast was the second place winner?”

“It took them a week,” Noir chuckled again, but Kensei thought there was just a hint of arrogance that time.

He let the thought pass. “A week! And you beat it in six hours! That’s incredible!”

“Sure, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about,” Noir went on. “My partner and I were investigating some Corrupture activity, and we found out where they’re hiding the Proto Gashats. You know, the original ones that have the information on everyone who died back in Kamen Rider Chronicle, right?”

That claim stopped Kensei in his tracks a few stairs behind Noir. Who didn’t fail to notice Kensei’s reaction. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“Look, it’s not that I’m not excited by the idea of being able to save everybody, but that’s kind of out of nowhere,” Kensei replied.

He was surprised by the speed Noir descended the stairs and grabbed the front of his shirt. “Don’t doubt me on this, buddy. My partner died trying to help me find this out,” Noir yelled. “Joe’s _dead_!”

It took a few seconds for Kensei to pull himself free. Was he still that weak? With a push he made Noir trip over the next step and fall on his armored butt. “Okay! I’m sorry about your friend, and I’ll make sure the other Riders hear about this. It’s tough for every Rider right now, okay? Machina Vision’s _gone_.”

Noir sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I heard about that. The Corrupture are tough, but that’s why it’s the most important thing to make sure they don’t get to keep the Proto Gashats. If all the people kept in those games were saved, then the Corrupture would have no power anymore!”

“You’re right,” Kensei agreed. “So where are they?”

“The point of origin,” Noir replied. “Kuroto Dan’s childhood home.”

XXX

Hiiro Kagami’s knife cut through his cake with medical precision, as always. He’d gotten his latest patient in and out of surgery in almost no time at all, but he was hanging around the doctors’ lounge waiting to see someone in particular.

“There you are, Oharu-san! When did you even start on that last patient of yours?” he suddenly heard a nurse ask. Hiiro peered over his shoulder and saw this Dr. Oharu. Long dark hair, alert eyes, with a kind smile returning the greeting she’d been given. She was beautiful, he caught himself thinking right away.

“Pardon me, do you mind if I join you?” Dr. Oharu looked up in surprise at the question, and even more at who was asking it. Hiiro Kagami was standing over their table, dish with cake in hand. “Cake’s more pleasant in the company of beautiful women.”

“Oh, Dr. Kagami! You flatterer!” the nurse chortled with a blush and looked away. His eyes were on Dr. Oharu as he took his seat between them.

He silently cut into his cake and impaled the smaller cut with his fork before making eye contact with her. “I’ve heard you’re quite the talent, Dr. Oharu,” he pbserved.

“Oh please, call me Sayo!” she smiled. “I’ve heard you’re quite the talented surgeon yourself, Kagami-san!”

At first he didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer, almost. Just something about that earnest face. “I am, I suppose, but I was gone for quite a while. It looks like a new top surgeon came along while I was gone,” he answered.

She gasped at the compliment. “I…I’m,” Sayo stuttered, tucking a stray lock of hair back over her ear. “I’m not sure about that.” Unnoticed by either of them the nurse who’d been sitting there before got up and walked away, smiling.

“I have a feeling there’s a young man in recovery who’d doubt that.”

“Not just one,” Sayo replied. “On the way up here everyone was talking about how you got a surgery patient out in something like two-thirds of your normal time.”

Hiiro chopped off another segment of his cake with his usual flawless stroke. He glanced up to realize Sayo was watching. Instead of forking it, he replied, “I guess old habits stay with you.”

She giggled into her palm.

“Maybe we can…meet and discuss methods sometime,” Hiiro suggested.

“I think I’d like that,” Sayo said with a gentle smile.

XXX

Kensei pushed open the door from the stairwell. “Okay, nobody in the CR Ward, this is probably where he’ll hanging out for a while,” he observed over his shoulder to Noir.

“Can’t you just call Ex-Aid?”

“Technically, yeah, but there was a huge explosion of Corrupture when the Machina Vision building blew up,” Kensei answered. “They were all helping fight the Cells, and now they’re helping do doctor stuff.”

Noir followed down the hall, looking around as he processed the information. “Isn’t this more important?”

“Doctor stuff is really important!” Kensei retorted. “They’ve had the Proto Gashats for this whole time, and I need to make sure my teammates are at 100% before we go after something so big.”

A grumble was Noir’s only response but he followed Kensei to a little café the hospital had on the second floor for people waiting on patients. Sitting in one corner sipping coffee was Yoshoku Kasuga. At least, it looked kind of like him. There were dark circles under his eyes and his clothes were wrinkled like he’d been wearing the same ones for days. Not much like the charismatic rich kid Kensei had met so long ago now. “Are you okay, man?” Kensei asked as he took the seat across from Yoshoku.

“I don’t know, Hidenaga,” Yoshoku sighed. “Who’s he?”

“He’s got info for us, but it can wait a few seconds. Where’s your, ah…friend, you were waiting with? If you don’t mind telling me,” he said gently, trying to give Yoshoku his space.

Yoshoku sighed again. “She went home. She wants to recover. Honestly, I felt like she’s been waiting to save her friend for so long, she doesn’t know what to do after that.”

“It’s good to see you again,” Kensei said, attempting a smile.

“Thanks for understanding us just disappearing like that,” Yoshoku answered.

Noir tapped his foot and crossed his arms impatiently.

With an uncertain look over his shoulder, Kensei whispered, “This is Noir. He says he knows where to find the Proto Gashats. The games that have all the people the Corrupture infected are trapped inside.”

Yoshoku looked at him in silence for a few seconds. “I feel like I should be really excited by that news, but I’m seriously worn out right out, Hidenaga,” he finally replied.

“I get it, man, I promise. You’ve had a draining experience lately.”

“Thanks, Hidenaga,” Yoshoku said, putting a hand on Kensei’s shoulder and finding the energy to smile a little.

Both of them looked back at Noir as he made an annoyed sigh. They didn’t look for long, though. Emu Hojo ran into the café and leaned over their table. “I’m glad I found you two here,” he panted.

“What’s so important?” Yoshoku asked. “Couldn’t you page us or something if you had something to tell us?”

“Not if it’s about… _that_ ,” Kensei said. “And I bet it is, right, Emu-san?”

The veteran Rider nodded. “Poppy just told us something weird’s about to land on the roof.”

Kensei arched an eyebrow. Noir grunted. Everyone else ignored him. “Weird…how?” asked Yoshoku.

“She said it’s a like a pirate ship with propellers.”

XXX

It was indeed like a pirate ship with propellers. The bizarre craft landed on the hospital’s helipad with a crunch that had every Kamen Rider grabbing for their Drivers. It took a few minutes before the propellers died down, but as soon as they had a Rider in yellow armor and a white cape ran to the railing and waved his staff down at them.

“Hey guys! You all showed up to welcome me back?”

“…Dasao? Is that you?”

“Hey, Kasuga! Oh, hey! What do you guys think of my new game? I already showed it to Hanaya-san, but he didn’t really seem that impressed.”

Hiiro shook his head. “Don’t use that to measure your success, little boy,” he said. “Nothing impresses Hanaya.”

“Oi!” Taiga ran to the railing and glared down at Hiiro. “I heard that, Kagami!”

An impassive shrug was Hiiro’s only reply. “I was expecting you to.”

While the two doctors argued a boarding ramp unfolded from the airship. The game popped out of the end of his staff and Doku Dasao ran down the ramp, throwing his arms around Kensei and Yoshoku. “Guys, I got a new game! It gives me an airship! Isn’t that cool???” he gushed breathlessly at them.

Yoshoku started a walk around the giant ship. “It’s pretty cool,” he admitted. “This where you been? Out building this thing?”

“No!” Doku grinned bright enough to blind them. “ _Earning_ this! I was on a _quest_! It was so cool! What about you guys? You do anything cool while I was gone?”

Kensei looked away. “You mean besides Machina Vision blowing up? Everyone in there must’ve gotten turned into Corrupture.”

Kensei patted Doku on the back. “A lot did happen,” he said with a backward glance at Noir. “In fact, a new Rider came around and said he knows where the Proto Gashats are hidden.”

“ _Thank_ you,” Noir mumbled.

Doku’s eyes narrowed, his great mood from a second ago seemingly forgotten. “Something on your mind, Dasao?” Yoshoku asked.

“Yeah, there is,” Doku growled, marching up to Noir, who recoiled a step in surprise. “If he knew where something so important was, why did he make sure to come here and tell us, instead of getting the Gashats and bringing them with him?”

Kensei hardened his gaze at Noir too. “You know, he _was_ really interested in getting everyone to go out there with him,” he added.

“What are you guys suggesting?” Noir asked, his voice taking a nervous edge.

Yoshoku dashed behind him to cut him off. “You’re a detective or something. How about you tell us.”

Suddenly the skies went dark. A voice blasted down. “LADIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES AND GENTLEMEN! ANNOUNCING, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, THE FULL-CONTACT KNOCK-OUT FIGHTER TOURNAMENT! COMING TO YOUR CITY TODAY!!!!”

“What the hell was that?!” Yoshoku demanded even though he was sure everyone’s ears were ringing just as badly as his.

“Byougen,” Emu gasped. “What’s he planning now?”

An image appeared stretching from the rooftops to the skies, of Hourakou Byougen’s all-too-familiar face, wearing a blazer covered in glittering rhinestones. “THE WINNERS WILL RECEIVE…THESE FABULOUS PRIZES!” he boomed next. A Rider Gashat floated out of his jacket pocket, then another and then a third one.

A shiny silver game with a label that read “Kaiju Squadron” with a metal fist swinging into the face of a fire-breathing turtle. A game with a case that had a red and orange color scheme like flames, and a rocker wielding a fiery guitar under the title “Brutal Beat”.

“WILL ALL ENTRANTS PLEASE GATHER AT THE INDICATED SIGN-UP LOCATION!” Hourakou declared before fading away. A flashing yellow arrow started to hover up and down over a spot near the middle of town.

“AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T BE LATE!” Hourakou said, leaving one last warning.


	3. Enter the Virus

As the group went along, the streets were eerily silent. There was no sign of any people, no sound of machinery. Not even any Corrupture Cells. It looked like they’d driven all the people inside in fear, and the Kamen Riders had already taken care of the Corrupture.

For now.

“Anybody else get a bad feeling about where we’re probably gonna end up?” Doku Dasao asked. He looked up at the giant blinking arrow in the sky and shivered.

“We’re all thinking the same thing, Dasao,” Yoshoku said. Another minute’s walk confirmed the Riders’ suspicion. The giant arrow was pointing down at the empty spot where Machina Vision headquarters had once stood. Doku had remembered there being a giant hole in the spot when he’d seen it from his airship, but somehow it’d been filled in very rapidly. Windows were still shattered in the buildings that used to face its sides, and giant purple stains marked their sides.

Doku couldn’t help feeling whoever had been there and filled the hole had left the other damage on purpose.

“Be ready for anything,” Taiga said suspiciously. He scanned the area looking for any signs of trouble, and it didn’t take long to spot one.

A fountain of vile purple goop erupted out of the empty lot and within only a second had solidified into Hourakou Byougen. He had on a jacket covered in silver sequins and a hideous apricot cravat, a microphone in one hand and his usual shit-eating grin on his face.

Immediately the Riders grabbed for their transformation gear but Hourakou wagged a scolding finger. “You heard, _this is a tournament_! You’ll have to wait until your designated matches start, heroes!” he said with a disappointed “tsk, tsk”.

“Enough playing around!” Taiga retorted, his Dual Gashat in hand and his hand already twisting its knob. “ **Bang Bang Simulations!** ”

Hourakou sighed and shook his head just as the missiles started flying. Kamen Rider Snipe charged in as the rest of the Riders, still not yet transformed, scattered before they could become collateral damage. The only one who didn’t run was Hourakou himself. All he did was lower his arms and look at Snipe in disappointment. Even just before a huge orange fireball engulfed him.

When the blast cleared, Hourakou was standing there with only a small flame burning on the end of one hair. Which he reached up and snuffed out between two fingers almost comedically. Then he smirked as another Kamen Rider in black and purple armor formed out of the ground and slashed Snipe across the back with a sword just like Brave’s. Another in identical armor fired a glowing bullet from a rifle like Snipe’s own, rocking him forward, then a third Rider swooped down in heavy armor like a dragon, slamming into Snipe with long prods on his forearms and carrying five stories high before slamming him into a wall. The three identical Riders landed behind Hourakou to back him up.

These three Kamen Riders looked just like Kamen Rider GENM, covered in black with the curved quills on the brow. Each of them had a black Gashat with a greyed-out label in the Bug Visor on his belt. Snipe and Ex-Aid had fought a Corrupture Rider like this before. Called Kamen Rider Crash.

“Guess now you know not to mess with Crash and the boys. Now, is there anyone else who wants to try to skip to the end of this tournament?” Hourakou laughed, turning to leer as Snipe hit the ground and turned back into Taiga Hanaya. “Or are you ready to compete for some FABULOUS PRIZES!”

“I’ll play, for now,” Kensei answered. He went on, “But you’re not going to get away with this forever.”

The Corrupture mastermind sneered. “No, of course not. One day a fated hero will rise up and cast me down to the hells from which I rose, and humans and dragons will live in peaceful harmony as they did in ages past. But today isn’t that day, young Utsura. I see you’re the first entrant in my contest!” Hourakou looked past at the other Riders. “Who else among you’s brave enough to answer the challenge this boy already has?!”

Emu was the first to raise his hand. “I’ll be next!” he bravely declared.

Hourakou smiled, but shook his head. “I’m _soooo_ sorry, Genius Gamer M, but we need to keep the competition fair. No pros, unfortunately.” Emu bowed and turned to walk away. As he passed Kensei, he exchanged a short look with the younger Rider and a quick nod.

“Who else will face trial by combat?” Hourakou issued his challenge again.

This time the first to answer was Doku Dasao. “I’ll take on anything you’ve got.” Kensei stepped up and squeezed his shoulder.

“Are you really sure this is a good idea?” Kensei whispered. “Where’d you even get that new game?”

The response was a knowing smile. “It’s kind of a long story. I got it from…,” Doku started to say, but casts his eyes over at Hourakou and stopped. “From an amazing game developer.” For a few seconds Hourakou’s cheerful expression faded, but was back as soon as they looked again.

He called out, “We have our second entrant!”

“Third!” Noir yelled, raising his hand.

“Third!” Hourakou echoed, pointing straight at the teen, his glaring MC’s smile returning. “Such courage from a Rider who hasn’t had long to establish himself! Will that take him all the way to the top?...But what’s this?!” He whipped his head to the side and after a second of hesitation everyone else did too. A muscular man with a bald head and mirrored sunglasses was standing there. “If it isn’t Tousen Kedamono, former bodyguard to the head of Machina Vision! Burning for revenge against the one who corrupted his boss, I’ll bet!”

Kedamono nodded, but punctuated his reply with a growl.

“Looks like we’re up to four contestants! Any other takers?” Hourakou called. Still groaning in pain, Taiga Hanaya hauled himself up and raised an aching hand. “I’m pleased to see your enthusiasm, Doctor Hanaya! Unfortunately, you already failed your audition. Anyone else interested in the FABULOUS PRIZES available in our tournament?”

As he asked, Parado started to step forward. However Kensei waved his hands side-to-side, close in front of himself and obviously to try to keep Houarkou from seeing. Parado gave him a sharp look but stepped back.

Instead, Hiiro Kagami lifted his arm. “I’ll join this little game of yours. It’s about time a lowly virus like you saw what you’re up against,” he warned.

Hourakou’s hands flew to his mouth in fake horror. And then he snickered. “Watch yourself, Kagami-san. Ayatsu Shuugouteki said that exact same thing. I’ve got him kept in a jar until I think of something amusing to do with him.”

The three black-armored Kamen Riders spread out behind him. Hourakou threw his arms wide. “But between my three club members, we have eight contestants!”

“What about me?” Yoshoku yelled. “I’ll fight too!”

“All slots have already been filled, sorry!” Hourakou replied with an extremely fake apologetic pout. “The tournament can begin, with these FABULOUS PRIZES up for grabs!”

Yoshoku muttered, “He’s not just a thief, he’s _proud_ of it. Rei’s bo…Rei’s friend made those new games for us when he was still a prisoner in Machina Vision.”

“We’ll get them back,” Kensei promised. “But we don’t want him to attack the city with armies of Cells again if we can help it, or something even worse, right?”

“Hidenaga, when do we stop doing whatever dance he tells us to, and start fighting him for real?” Yoshoku asked in an angry whisper.

Kensei put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll do it, but we need a plan and some more power, and I think we can take advantage of this little tournament of his to get more power.”

Behind them Hourakou was waving his microphone at the air, making a giant screen appear. On it was a display of brackets for his tournament, showing their Rider names and super-deformed portraits.

XXX

BLOCK A:

Kamen Rider Utsura vs. Kamen Rider Crash (Taddle Quest)

Kamen Rider Noir vs Kamen Rider Crash (Bang Bang Shooting)

XXX

BLOCK B:

Kamen Rider Buster vs. Kamen Rider Crash (Drago Knight Hunter Z)

Kamen Rider Brave vs. Kamen Rider Rune

XXX

“Aaaaaaaaaand looks like we have our matchups!” Hourakou said with so much force he actually panted for breath.

“When do we start?” Kensei asked.

Hourakou panted for a few more seconds, letting the question hang in the air until he grinned and answered, “Why should we wait?”

“Mind if I have a word with my trainer first?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Hourakou hissed around his grin. He stomped his foot and a purple wall erupted from the between the Riders who’d agreed to enter his little tournament and the rest. Kensei touched the wall and pulled back his arm after getting a painful buzz up the arm.

Kiiko ran up to the wall but stopped short after seeing Kensei zapping himself. “Kensei, don’t do this. You can’t power up all the way by yourself,” she whispered to him.

“And I know he knows that,” Kensei whispered back. “But while he’s paying attention to us, see if you can find another one of the Gashats. We’re only looking for the really powerful ones now…and the more power we have the better it’ll be for us.”

Slowly, reluctantly, Kiiko stepped back from the wall and nodded just slightly enough for Kensei to see it. Not Hourakou, she hoped. She turned around and slipped away from the wall. Parado followed her, glancing back over his shoulder at Kensei with a vague expression. Kensei hoped this was a good idea, letting his old friend hang around with someone who’d been one of the Riders’ worst enemies, once.

“Your match is first, Hidenaga-san!” Hourakou called to him. “Enough goodbyes, unless you’d rather forfeit!”

When Kensei turned around, a series of platforms floating in the air had appeared. Stairs led up to them, one in front and the other one in the back. On the platform farthest to the left, one of the black Kamen Riders was already climbing the back stairs. Kensei ran to the other stairs and halfway up them until he’d gotten as high as his opponent. Soon they got to the top of platform, Kensei rolling a Gashat in his hand and trying to figure out what was going on in Hourakou’s twisted mind.

XXX

“You’re seeing it here live, people!” Hourakou grinned into every TV, tablet, laptop and smartphone for miles. “The cream of the new generation of Kamen Riders, versus Kamen Rider Crash, the face of the Corrupture’s greatest warriors! You’ve got about thirty seconds to start a betting pool, folks!”

Around Kensei and his opponent, the empty platform suddenly flashed out into an amusement park with Mighty’s face splashed onto everything.

“ **Utsura….versus…Crash!!** ” a bombastic voice yelled as the fight began. Ready or not.

XXX

Kamen Rider Crash bowed slightly before he raised his sword with its fiery orange blade.

“ **Wighty Classics! TUH-Ripple EX!!** ” shouted the Gashat in Kensei’s hand as soon as he hit the trigger. Crash charged him before he even locked the game into his Driver, but Kensei knew better than to expect Hourakou’s goons fight fair anymore. As Crash came in for another swing Kensei jumped over his head and kicked the icon for his Rider form as he came down. There was a quick shimmer and he’d become Kamen Rider Utsura, clad in the white armor and backpack of his Wighty game.

Crash brought his sword down at Utsura’s head, trailing flame from the blade. All of a sudden it was caught on the side of Utsura’s Gashacon Breaker. He kicked Crash in the stomach to knock him away then jumped. Utsura went so high he was just a dark speck against the sun. Then he came back down and bounced off Crash’s head, vaulting off to one of the cars on a ferris wheel.

The Corrupture Rider was dazed for a few seconds but spotted Utsura as his car rolled to the top of the wheel. He was waving down to Crash, and a cartoon tongue emerged from Utsura’s mouthplate and blew a raspberry. Growling like an enraged animal, Crash ran to the ferris wheel and jumped into Utsura’s car.

Once again their powerful weapons clashed against each other with a HIT graphic appearing where they impacted. Crash slapped the button making the blade of his Gashacon Sword flip around to its icy blue side. It touched the hammer in Utsura’s hand and formed a cocoon of frost over it.

“No way…” Utsura gasped. The sword slashed again aimed at Utsura’s torso. Just before it had a chance to touch him Utsura launched himself straight up. Crash raised his sword to impale Utsura as he came back down. The dark shape that came down and landed by his feet wasn’t the Kamen Rider.

It was a bomb with a Wighty face on the side winking up at him.

A giant explosion with pixelated edges blew the car off the ferris wheel. From his vantage point on top of the Tunnel of Love, Utsura watched Kamen Rider Crash live up to his name breaking through the roof of a baseball tossing booth. A few seconds later the Corrupture’s Rider came running out. Flame surrounded the blade of his sword as if fueled by rage from being tricked.

Utsura couldn’t possibly tell with how the dark Rider charged his way in silence. His backpack’s top popped open and spat out a pair of bombs he swatted at Crash with his hammer. A swipe of Crash’s sword created a wall of flame that swallowed the bombs. Through the roaring flames Crash probably didn’t see Utsura jump and punch a grab the Energy Item that popped out. When the flames surged from the bombs exploding from their heat, Crash definitely didn’t see Utsura punch another block and grab another coin.

Crash stared into the fire, trying to see where Utsura had gone. He wasn’t looking for long when an impossibly long arm reached through the flames, grabbed him by the neck and yanked him through. It was Utsura’s arm stretched out but retracting and dragging Crash up in front of him. His body was coated in a silver shell that’d shielded him from the flames.

Utsura slammed his hammer on top of Crash’s head and the extra inches of ice Crash had covered it in made the blow even harder. Again Utsura bashed his Breaker onto Crash’s head. The ice covering his arm was cracking but one last slam shattered the frozen shell. “You enjoying the show, Hourakou?” he yelled, already knowing the answer. “This is what’ll happen to all of you…the Kamen Riders beat the virus once, we’ll do it again!”

As soon as he said it the sky darkened and all the rides around him slowed and stopped completely. Purple filth bubbled out of a cotton candy machine and formed itself into Hourakou Byougen. “Oh yes, little Rider,” he grinned. “I _am_ enjoying the show. No, no-one can see us right now. They won’t even have noticed anything stopped when I decide to start things again. But as for you…you talk really big for someone who needs someone else to combine with him to use his real power.”

“And you talk really big for someone who hasn’t got the guts to just have a straight fight,” Utsura retorted. “Instead you play games with us and waste time. You think you’re some kind of super-being and all you do screw around.”

Hourakou looked back at him with a smirk for a few seconds, then he tossed back his head and laughed. Thunder cracked and lightning arced across the sky. “Human, I’m _the game!_ Of course I make you jump through hoops. Of course I drag things out when you think you’re winning. _That’s what humans created this virus to do: make life like a video game._ Is it somehow _my_ fault this is what the virus still does when it gets too big for a human to control it anymore?!?” he asked, a crazed light burning in his eyes.

Utsura stared right back. “There’s something you’re forgetting about video games,” he said.

Without his evil grin dimming a bit, Hourakou asked. “Ooooh, this is going to be funny! What am I forgetting, Kamen Rider?”

“Video games are made for humans to beat. _That’s_ what.”

“And video games are made to challenge humans,” Hourakou sniggered then snapped his fingers and time restarted to violently that it felt like an earthquake had all been compressed into one minute. Everything turned into a twisted blur of color that made Utsura stagger as he desperately tried to recover his balance.

While Utsura was getting his head together Kamen Rider Crash suddenly lunged at him. Flaming trails hung in the air from his vicious swings and it was all the dazed Utsura could do to back away before getting incinerated. Crash came at him with a vicious overhead strike that slashed the flaming blade all the way down his torso and knocked Utsura onto his back with a _huge_ HIT graphic appearing.

The pain woke Utsura up and he could see his enemy charging again with perfect clarity. Just before Crash delivered another attack that would’ve gone right through him, Utsura somersaulted backward and the sword splintered the ground. It took a few seconds for Crash to hear another sound over the crackle of his own flaming sword: the hiss of a fuse burning. He looked down just in time to see three bombs lying on the ground just before they went off.

“How was that for a challenge?” Utsura muttered while the blocky explosion dispersed. Kamen Rider Crash came stumbling out of the blast with his armor smeared with carbon. His mask was cracked and he staggered closer to try to make a feeble attack even though the flames on his sword had almost gone out.

Bits of the mask were falling off then the entire thing seemed to collapse.

Utsura could see parts of the dirt-smeared face underneath. The strong jaw. The penetrating eyes. Suddenly it synched with the image of his height, his build.

Looking out of Kamen Rider Crash’s shattered mask was Yuuma Hidenaga.

His brother.

XXX

“I don’t think it’s really helping to do it this way,” Kiiko mumbled.

Parado grunted back at her. “It’s better not to stay in one place,” he answered. “The Corrupture boss might be able to find you easier that way.”

“But it’s hard to concentrate with everything going by so fast,” Kiiko said while she looked at buildings, cars, people whizzing by outside the train windows. Still, she tried. Kiiko held up one finger while she clenched the overhead railing and tried to concentrate her power on that fingertip, then imagined it expanding outward.

Right away she could feel a slight tingle of thoughts from everywhere in the car. It was the vital energy from their lives, their thoughts. Drive to keep their world, their lives, continuing. Kiiko could see faint images here and there. A young boy chasing butterflies with a net. The woman sitting next to her sitting and playing mahjong. A middle-aged man in a suit drinking and singing karaoke with other men his age. It took a few seconds to realize, but she was seeing specific examples of that energy. Of those things that kept these people going.

But the images were fading. Stretching out her power and seeing all these was exhausting her quickly, and her grip on the railing slipped.

A strong hand on her back pressed her back up, and Kiiko felt new energy traveling into her body. She looked back over her shoulder and somehow expected to find see Kensei there. Instead she saw Parado looking down at her, his expression as neutral as always, but he held her up on her feet and she could feel his strength flowing into Kiiko and refilling her own.

And Parado’s strength was awesome. Kiiko’s search radius stretched until she couldn’t even count how much distance it covered. The energy of every person in the city touched her mind for a few instants, but Kiiko reached out with her senses for a different kind of power. Great, but sleeping.

All at once, she could see it. A white Gashat.

Just like last time, the next thing she knew she was laying down, looking up into Parado’s face this time. “Did you see anything?” he asked, but more softly than Kiiko was expecting from him.

“Yes,” she answered. “I know where to find Taddle Legacy.”

XXX

Utsura tightened his grip around his hammer. The grip creaked under his enraged strength.

He’d known his brother had been imprisoned with the other Corrupture. Yuuma could’ve been respawned into any Corrupture monster he’d fought. To show it to Utsura, though…

“You planned this, didn’t you, Byougen?”

Hourakou’s face formed out of a wad of cotton candy on the ground. “No need to be so formal, we’re all friends here!” he sniggered. “And what kind of thanks is that, for reuniting you with your beloved brother?”

For an instant the hope that it was real clenched Utsura’s heart. He waved his hand in front of Yuuma’s face. “Aniki? Is that you?” A blank stare right into his eyes was the only response Yuuma made.

Letting a scream of rage Utsura whipped around to the wad of cotton candy and crushed it with his foot. “You _did_ set this up on purpose,” he growled. “How many other monsters did you turn him into this whole time? How many times have I beaten him?”

“Now _there_ ’s an idea!” Hourakou’s voice came from a purple teddy bear knocked to the ground by the recent explosions. “But I admit, it’s only this time, Utsura-san. Would you like it if I changed that? Made it so everyone you fought was your brother, turned into a new monster? Beaten, regenerated and then sent out for you to _destroy_ again? And again, and again? Would you like that, Utsura? I’m sure _I_ would!”

Utsura snarled and smashed the bear with his Breaker, making it explode into a puddle of purple slime. “You’d like that! But I’m not letting you get to me, not after everything I’ve fought through! I’ll stop you for good, no matter what it takes!” he yelled.

“Let’s put that to the test,” Hourakou’s voice replied. A savage light came into Yuuma’s eyes and he let out a furious yell. Flames burning white-hot engulfed his sword.

And with a resigned sigh, Utsura started his finisher.

“ **Wighty Critical Strike!** ”

He jumped over the swing meant to cut him in half at the waist. Utsura’s foot connected with his brother’s chest with an explosive HIT graphic. His foot hit the Corrupture Rider on the chin next with a GREAT graphic popping out. Utsura spun faster, faster, until he was just a blur landing kick after kick without touching the ground.

Kamen Rider Crash went down from the furious assault before he dissolved away into the sky in a purple stream as defeated Corrupture always did. Utsura didn’t watch it go. He was on his knees and panting from the effort of his finisher.

And asking himself if he had the strength to see this tournament through to the end.

XXX

Outside the Game Area the board flashed a red graphic above Utsura’s name reading WINNER. Kamen Rider Crash’s name faded out and Utsura’s slid up the first bracket as the winner of the match.

“Good job, Hidenaga!” Doku yelled.

“Yeah, good one, guy,” Noir said without as much enthusiasm.

Doku gave him a bemused look. “One of the good guys won. Aren’t you excited?” he asked.

Noir pointed past him at the board. “I’m up next, maybe you noticed.”

“You worried you can’t handle it? You volunteered, didn’t you?”

“Will all contestants participating in the next match please proceed to their designated area?” Hourakou called out over the loudspeaker, interrupting them. Noir looked away and hurried up to the stairs to the next platform, where another Kamen Rider Crash was climbing the stairs on the other side. “Who’ll come out on top in this next phase of this champions?!” Hourakou yelled as the Game Area started unfolding around Noir and his opponent.

“ **Noir…versus…Crash!** ” the same automated voice called out with too much enthusiasm. Noir cringed as he started his transformation and the Game Area formed around him.

XXX

“ **HENSHIN!!** ” The words were still echoing from his yell when an overwhelming darkness covered Kamen Rider Noir. While his human eyes adjusted to the gloom he dove behind a shadow that looked a little like an antique car, the kinds out of ancient gangster movies.

When a few more seconds passed he could tell that wasn’t much of an exaggeration. He was on a street typical of dirty urban sprawl from the Alderman Files. NPC sprites in pinstriped suits and flapper gowns traveled the sidewalk arm-in-arm.

From above he could hear a mechanical click. Noir threw himself to the ground just before a gun barked and a row of bullet holes formed in the side of the car.

_Have to make this look good_.

“Hold it right there!” he yelled, sitting up quickly. He spotted a shadowy form running across a low rooftop. He took aim and squeezed off two shots. Nothing happened with the first but after his second shot his attacker gasped and slumped to the roof.

Noir jumped to the top of a car and then to the top of the little storefront, the people walking the streets below paying no attention at all to the gunfight playing out near them. Meanwhile Noir ran over, pointing his gun. “I’ve got you now, you—”

Suddenly he stopped, looking down at where he’d seen his opponent fall. At least, where he’d seen his opponent fall. There was no sign of any enemy Kamen Rider.

He threw himself onto his back just a split second before he heard the sound of a gun going off, even louder than before. Noir lurched to the side of the roof and fired twice at the roof where Kamen Rider Crash was aiming his rifle for another shot. Both bullets rang against Crash’s armor. The Corrupture Rider stumbled and his arms flew wide.

Getting up so fast he was just a blur of white from his long coat, Noir threw himself off the roof feet-first. His boots slammed into Kamen Rider Crash’s chest and knocked him off the car. Crash had barely hit the ground before Noir was leaning him, a foot pressed hard on the Corrupture’s chest and Noir’s gun pointed straight into his mask.

“Not much without your pop gun, are you?” Noir taunted.

Without warning Crash grabbed the arm holding Noir’s own gun and yanked it to the side just before he fired. The shit tore a little hole in the asphalt next to Crash’s head instead of his mask. Noir lost his balance and Crash was able to jump up and wrestle with him for control of Noir’s pistol.

“I’ve beat up Corrupture tougher than you just to stay awake!” Noir grunted as he tried to wrestle his gun closer to Crash’s face. Still the Corrupture Rider said absolutely nothing. He never would’ve admitted it, but the silence of the evil Rider was getting to Noir a little. It was true he really had fought and beaten a lot of Corrupture in his brief career, but they always talked back. Like Jackie the Blade. Noir remembered him…

They’d always acted just like people. People who had weird powers and tried to kill other people, but he could still tell what they were thinking.

Seemed like the only thing Crash would understand was pain.

Like a streak of white light Noir shoved his head forward and headbutted Crash. The dark Rider rolled across the asphalt a couple times. He reached out for where his gun was pinned under the tire of his car. He was so dazed from Noir’s headbutt that he didn’t even hear the yells of Noir’s Driver before the detective Rider blew him away.

Like the first defeated Crash, Noir’s opponent disintegrated and spiraled away out of sight. He twirled his pistol on his finger and looked away from the remains speeding out of sight. He’d won.

But the tournament was just beginning.

XXX

Kamen Rider Crash’s name disappeared from the bracket. Kamen Rider Noir’s moved up to the next level.

“…and it looks like Team GENM’s pulled off two victories already!” Hourakou announced with a fiendish grin. Some of the viewers tried to switch off the video, but nothing happened. His menacing face stayed dead center on every screen he’d hijacked to broadcast his tournament.

“But it’s a long way to the top in this contest of champions!” Hourakou announced next. “What surprises will we see as we move into the matches in the second block?! Stay tuned, kids at home, and find out!”

**See you Next gaMe**


End file.
